The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are out of the Section V Class A Hockey Tournament as a result of a 5-3 defeat Tuesday night against Pittsford at the Batavia Ice Arena, but for Coach Marc Staley, the team’s successful shortened season is just a harbinger of better things to come.
“That was as good as any team we’ve played all season. We battled right to the end, we didn’t quit and I’m proud of them,” said Staley, who is in his 14th year as the ND hockey coach.
Unlike its previous two games where they trailed 2-0, the Irish – although outshot by a 13-8 margin – led after the first period when freshman Joe DiRisio cashed in the rebound after a shot from the point by his cousin, junior Vin DiRisio, at the 12:43 mark. Sophomore Cooper Hamilton also picked up an assist.
“I thought we played a very solid and smart first period,” Staley said. “We did exactly what we wanted to. We had the line changes that we wanted, we had the matchups that we wanted and had a lot of whistles because we wanted to slow the pace of the game down.”
Notre Dame took a 2-0 lead at 1:34 of the second period as sophomore Ronin Hofmaster poked the puck past senior goaltender Ryan Graney with an assist from senior Alonso Storey and junior Gavin Schrader.
Just when it seemed like the Irish were in control, Pittsford struck back just 18 seconds later when Aiden McGrain redirected a shot by Brandon Penrose past freshman goaltender Frank Falleti Jr. to cut the lead in half.
The goal energized the visiting Panthers, who displayed speed and precision en route to scoring twice more in the period – a wrister by Brian Judge, unassisted, at 6:53 and a goal by eighth-grader Mathew Judge at 11:49, assisted by Colin Norton and Henok Hankinson.
Pittsford outshot the Irish 19-5 in the second period.
Staley said Pittsford capitalized on long stretches without stoppage of play.
“The second period was more wide open, and we had stretches of two and a half, three minutes without a whistle and that hurts us with our depth,” he said.
With Graney coming up big on a couple Notre Dame rushes midway in the third period, Pittsford upped its lead to 4-2 at the 11:21 mark when Brian Judge scooped up an errant pass in the ND zone and flipped it past Falleti on his glove side.
The Irish bounced back, however, pulling within a goal with 1:58 to play when Storey tallied after a couple of nifty passes by Hofmaster and Cooper Hamilton.
Notre Dame, with Falleti on the bench in favor of an extra attacker, had a golden opportunity to knot the score but Graney made a spectacular save on Joe DiRisio’s shot at point-blank range with 25 seconds remaining.
Seconds later, Will Masaschi fired the puck the length of the ice into the empty net to make it 5-3.
“After the goal that made it 4-2, we came right back and scored,” Staley said. “We pulled the goalie and had two really good chances to tie that game. We could still be playing right now; still be in overtime.”
Falleti ended up with 36 saves (the last goal was into an empty net) as Pittsford outshot the home team, 41-23.
Still, Staley said he’s not discouraged but excited about what lies ahead.
“We have a lot to look forward to. We’re returning all 10 of our top scorers and our goalie situation is only going to get better. It’s going to be a fun ride,” he said.
He did bring up whether the Little Irish belong in Class A, competing against much larger schools. The Pittsford squad, for example, is comprised of the best players from Pittsford Mendon and Pittsford Sutherland – schools with combined enrollment of about 2,000 students, Staley said.
“The question can be thrown at this point; did we belong in A? Was this a fair thing to do to our program? I don’t think it was but, again, as a coach I can’t control that. All I can do is prepare my team and get them ready and I think we earned a lot of respect tonight from these teams,” he said.
Staley said the alignment in this unusual season, shortened by COVID-19, was a bit “crazy.”
“I’ve been screaming about this for a long time. We regularly – (changing his thought) -- and we’ve won championships at that level. I think we created a culture (he has coached ND to two sectional titles and three league championships) and that has attracted some kids to Notre Dame. We’ve shown that we’re not afraid to play anybody and we’re going to find a way.”
This season, the team was bolstered by the transfer of a trio of key players from the Batavia City School District to the parochial school.
Staley said that he thinks Pittsford will beat Gates-Chili on Thursday to reach the finals against Victor (his prediction).
He said Pittsford’s 5-7-1 record is deceiving because they compete in the top division of the Class A clubs and have to face strong teams such as Victor, Penfield and Churchville-Chili twice.
Even though Notre Dame was the No. 1 seed, Staley felt his team was the underdog against the more experienced Panthers.
“I’m happy with the progress that we made this year, and the progress with some of the young kids, specifically Frankie in net, Noah Hudson the way he has developed his game on defense, the way that Ronin Hofmaster has continued to develop his game, the way that Cooper Hamilton has improved throughout the season,” Staley said.
“Seeing how freshman like Noah Whitcombe had come in and improved, and Vincent DiRisio (17 goals, 13 assists), very proud of him, yes he’s a fiery kid – his penalties this year were more hockey specific, so he’s growing up. And Gavin Schrader, look how this kid has developed this year. He barely took any penalties and he led the league is scoring (17 goals, 17 assists).
Staley said he believes Notre Dame will be moved back to Class B next season and “I think we will be a really hard team for everyone to handle next year.”
While the Section V Tournament is over, Staley said he is working on lining up a couple more home games – tentatively at 6 p.m. Thursday against McQuaid and 7 p.m. Saturday against Brighton.
Photos by Jim Burns.
